Chapter VII. Meditation or Mental Culture: Bhāvanā
第七章 修习：心智的培育
The Buddha said: ”O bhikkhus, there are two kinds of illness. What are those two
Physical illness and mental illness. There seem to be people who enjoy freedom from physical illness even for a year or two… even for a hundred years or more. But, O bhikkhus, rare n this world are those who enjoy freedom from mental illness even for one moment, except those who are free from mental defilements” (i.e., except arahants). [1]
佛说：“比丘们！病有两种。那两种呢？肉体的病和心智的病。有人可以一年、两年、甚至一百年、一百多年肉体都不生病。但是，比丘们啊！世间除了心无染著的人(就是说，除了阿罗汉以外〔注一〕，心智方面能有片刻不生病的的人，都是稀有难得的啊！”
The Buddha”s teaching, particularly his way of ”meditation”, aims at producing a state of perfect mental health, equilibrium and tranquility. It is unfortunate that hardly any other section of the Buddha” teaching is so much misunderstood as ”meditation”, both by Buddhists and non-Buddhists. The moment the word ”meditation” is mentioned, one thinks of an escape from the daily activities of life; assuming a particular posture, like a statue in some cave or cell in a monastery, in some remote place cut off from society; and musing on, or being absorbed in, some kind of mystic or mysterious thought or trance. True Buddhist ”meditation” does not mean this kind of escape at all. The Buddha”s teaching on this subject was so wrongly, or so little understood, that in later times the way of ”meditation” deteriorated and degenerated into a kind of ritual or ceremony almost technical in its routine. [2]
佛的教诲，尤其是他所教的修习方法，其目的在培养健康、均衡和宁静的心理，使臻完美。不幸的是：佛教中几乎没有什么法门，像“修习”那样被教徒及非教徒所误解。只要一提到“修习”，马上就使人想到逃避日常生活，摆起某种姿势，像石窟里或寺院佛堂中的塑像一般，在远离尘嚣的处所，以从事某种秘密或神秘的冥想，或专住于神游。真正佛教的修习，完全不是这种的逃避。佛在这一主题方面所教的内容，大大的被误解或极少的被了解。以致到了后世，修习方法变质败坏，竟成为一种仪式，其手续繁杂几乎成为专门学问了。〔注二〕
Most people are interested in meditation or yoga in order to gain some spiritual or mystic powers like the ”third eye”, which others do not posses. There was some time ago a Buddhist nun in India who was trying to develop a power to see through her ears, while she was still in the possession of the ”power” of perfect eye-sight! This kind of idea is nothing but ”spiritual perversion”. It is always a question of desire, ”thirst” for power.
大多数的人对于修习(或称瑜伽)有兴趣，其目的乃在获得若干精神或秘密的力量，诸如为旁人所无的“第三只眼”等。若干年前，就曾有一位印度佛教尼师，想练成以耳视物的神通。而当时她的视力极好，并未丧失。这种念头无他，只是精神颠倒而已；所以仍然只是渴求权力的贪欲在作祟。
The word meditation is a very poor substitute for the original term bhāvanā, which means ”culture” or ”development”, i.e., mental culture or mental development. The Buddhist bhāvanā, properly speaking, is mental culture in the full sense of the term. It aims at cleansing the mind of impurities and disturbances, such as lustful desires, hatred, ill-will, indolence, worries and restlessness, skeptical doubts, and cultivating such qualities as concentration, awareness, intelligence, will, energy, the analytical faculty, confidence, joy, tranquility, leading finally to the attainment of highest wisdom which sees the nature of things as they are, and realize the Ultimate Truth, Nirvāna.
英文中所用以代表巴利原文 bhavana (修习)的 meditation (沉思、冥索)一词，十分不妥。Bhavana 的意义是培育、发展，尤指心智的培育与发展。肯定点说，佛教中的修习，正是百分之百的心智培育的意思。它的目的，在涤荡淫欲、憎恚、怠惰、焦虑、不安、疑惑等心智方面的骚乱不净，一方面又培育集中的注意力、清明的心智、知识、意志力、精进力、分析力、自信、欢喜心、宁静的心境等优良品性，以冀最后导致如实知见一切事物本性的最高智慧，而证入最后的真理、涅槃。
There are two forms of meditation. One is the development of mental concentration (samatha or samādhi), of one-pointedness of mind (cittekaggatā, Skt, cittaikāgratā), by various methods prescribed in the texts, leading up to the highest mystic states such as ”the Sphere of Nothingness” or ”the Sphere of Neither-Perception-nor-Non-Perception”. All these mystic states, according to the Buddha, are mind-created, mind-produced, conditioned (samkhata). [3] They have nothing to do with Reality, Truth, Nirvāna. This form of meditation existe…
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